Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/545

 us. iv. DEC. so, 1911.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

539

MANZONI : ' PBOMESSI SPOSI ' (11 S. iv. 408). The translation of Manzoni's romance, published at Pisa in 1828 as 'The Be- trothed,' was made by C. Swan. See B.M. Catalogue, Clowes, 1886. N. W. HILL.

on

Old English Libraries. By Ernest A. Savage.

(Methuen & Co.)

MR. SAVAGE is an enthusiastic student of the development of literary knowledge in England. He sees distinctly that any one seeking to under- stand the mediaeval mind must set himself to learn what books influenced educated thought between the first introduction of Christianity and the full blossom -time of the Renaissance. He therefore begins by showing how the early Irish monasteries derived their learning, through Gaul, from Eastern monachism ; and how the beautiful manuscripts which they eventually produced played a part in the civilization of England and the mainland of Europe. It was the followers of the Benedictine rule who finally established monastic study on a definite plan, although it does not appear that the rule was strictly observed for some time after St. Augustine introduced it into England. Progress must have been made in some fashion, however, both in the southern counties and in Northumbria, which became famous for the learning bestowed on it by Irish missionaries. Mr. Savage relates that a decree of the Council held at Cloveshoe in 747 pointed out the want of instruction among the religious. Nevertheless, England was in high repute for its scholars, as was recognized by Charles the Great when he invited Alcuin to his Court only a few years before the Vikings began to ravage Britain, and overwhelm the monasteries with a destruction which meant the loss of invaluable books. Alfred the Great " bewailed the small number of people south of the Humber who under- stood the English of their service, or could trans- late from Latin into English." Among all the cates weighing on him, he found courage enough to foster the national literature, with the result that while ecclesiastics were slaughtered by piratical hordes of pagans, and Latin languished, work could yet be done in the native tongue. For years the plight of the monasteries made it im- possible that learning should prosper, but matters improved under the influence of St. Dunstan.

After the Conquest the reformation in eccle- siastical affairs which was brought about by Lanfranc led to the encouragement of know- ledge, and the production of accurate texts of patristic books. " From Lanfranc to the close of the thirteenth century was the summer-time of the English religious houses During this prosperous age some of the great houses did their best work in writing and study." When a slow decline set in, the coming of the Friars imparted fresh energy to the production of manu- scripts. Oxford and Cambridge, too, began to do good work. By the end of the fourteenth century a few books were usually to be found in well- to-do households, and the custom of tale-tellers reciting stories from memory, or reading romances and chronicles to an audience ill-provided with j

manuscripts, was giving way to a more individual use of literature. In the middle of the fifteenth century book-collecting, to a modest degree, was not infrequently practised. Wills and inventories afford testimony that before the end of Henry VI.'s reign the first impulse of the Italian Renaissance towards the study of Greek and Arabic was already producing an effect.

To make his account of the slow develop- ment of English letters complete, Mr. Savage describes the methods used in preparing and adorning manuscripts. He also speaks of the curious satchels in which early Irish Christians kept the writings which they had beautified. The book-boxes and book-rooms of a much later age receive the attention due to them, and the author has something to say of the book-trade as it existed a little before the discovery of printing. Parch- ment-makers, scribes, illuminators, bookbinders, and stationers or booksellers all interest him. The particular importance of stationers in the Universities is carefully explained. By 1403 the Stationers' Company in London was chartered. Grocers also sold manuscripts, parchment, paper, and ink. King John of France, while a prisoner in England in 1360, bought paper and parchment from the grocers of Lincoln. From a scribe of Lincoln he bought books, some of which are now in the Bibliothque Nationale, Paris. Books- were also to be purchased at the great fairs. Though the monasteries had begun by producing- little beyond religious and grammatical works, these presently proved insufficient. The prejudice against classical Latin literature had to give way. After a while it became convenient to look on the works of some heathen authors as allegorical. " Ovid allegorized contained profound truths r his ' Art of Love,' so treated, was not unfit for nuns." Law treatises also came into fashion, since jurists received more rewards and benefices than theologians and philosophers. Then the stimulus given when Greek books, and Arabic versions of them, became obtainable quickened! learning with new energy. It was in the four- teenth and fifteenth centuries that " romances began to creep into all the libraries save the academic, in which they are rarely found." The monks added some to their collections, probably a;b first that they might be copied and sold to augment the monastic income ; but Mr. Savage remarks that later writers echo such charges as that in ' Piers Plowman ' which declares that a friar was much better acquainted with the ' Rimes of Robin Hood ' and ' Randal, Erie of Chester/ than with his Pater-noster. It cannot be doubted that Piers himself, and the lays relating to such heroes as Bevis, Guy, and Havelok the Dane, had great influence on the lives of illiterate people. Even cultivated men like Bishop Grosseteste enjoyed listening to gestours and ballad-singers.. " The spun-out, dreary poems which now make such difficult reading are infinitely more enter- taining when read aloud : the voice gives life and character to a humdrum narrative, and the gestour would know how to make the best of incidents which he knew from experience to be especially interesting to an audience." There was nothing to prevent him from improving a story when a telling phrase occurred to his mind. He might also dovetail fresh incidents into it. IXo doubt every bear-baiting or church-ale would be entertained with a slightly different version of the popular narrative of the day.